i saw one in store a few weeks ago on display and it was right next to a 30 inch display and i wasn't expecting much but wow it was bright and vibrate and NO glare. the 30 inch looked washed out. even the new glossy notebooks have some glare but nothing like old glossy ones surprisingly.

so yeah while it is expensive and only for the new notebooks it is pretty cool becasue

- mini display port
- 3 USB ports in the back of it
- magsafe and it charges your notebook while it is plugged in
- isight, mic, and speakers!

but can it support older macbooks? or only the late 2008 models? If i get the adapter can it run too?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Have you read about the product on Apple.com?

Right now, the only info is that it ships with this cable, and the mini-displayport adapter on it won't work on older MacBooks. There is no information about an adapter to make it work with older MacBooks.

I'm selling my 2007 iMac and I'm going to get one of these to use with my new MacBook. It will be nice to get back to having just one computer with all my data on it again and it will be doubly nice to get such a high resolution.

I'm currently using the MacBook as my primary computer without an external monitor, which isn't as comfortable as I'd hoped. I really want to see this new display on sale soon so that I can get my hands on it!

i saw one in store a few weeks ago on display and it was right next to a 30 inch display and i wasn't expecting much but wow it was bright and vibrate and NO glare. the 30 inch looked washed out. even the new glossy notebooks have some glare but nothing like old glossy ones surprisingly.

so yeah while it is expensive and only for the new notebooks it is pretty cool becasue

- mini display port
- 3 USB ports in the back of it
- magsafe and it charges your notebook while it is plugged in
- isight, mic, and speakers!

Who knows if the final production LED Display will even allow a DVI signal as a valid input signal? No one knows yet.

DispayPort and MiniDisplayPort carry a total different signal than DVI/HDMI.
Although DisplayPort interface and cables can carry an DVI/HDMI signal, it can also carry a totally different DisplayPort signal.

The new Macbooks/MBP graphics cards can output a DisplayPort signal, a DVI/HDMI signal, or an analog VGA signal. The MB/MBP actually use a DVI signal to connect to their built-in display.

That does not mean that the new LED Cinema Display can accept all of these signals.
There is no way (currently) to convert a DVI signal (from an older Mac) to a DisplayPort signal either.

In all likelihood the LED Cinema Display will probably only accept the DisplayPort signal, as that would require less hardware (cost) in building them and Apple can sell more new MB/MBPs.

From wikipedia: for DisplayPort
"Designed to support internal chip-to-chip communication
Can drive display panels directly, eliminating control circuits and allowing for cheaper and slimmer displays"

Hence no need for DVI/HDMI hardware components.

There are different chips and pins in the DisplayPort/VGA, DisplayPort/DVI, DisplayPort/Dual-Link DVI adaptors. These tell the graphics cards which signal to output.

This is similar to the composite and component adaptors for iPods, Touches, and iPhones. There are chips in those dock cables which tell the device which signal to output, and on which pins.

Someone has already tried the MiniDisplayPort/DVI attached to a DVI/VGA and it didn't work, even though they fit together.

So Aristobrat, I doubt these new LED Cinema Displays will be backward compatible, Apple is always moving forward like this.
I give it a 1% chance these will work with old Macs.
But we don't know yet.

The LED Cinema Display was updated in the store this afternoon from shipping in "November" to show 7-10 day shipping for the US and 2-3 weeks for Canada.... still can't actually purchase one though. Chris

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